


Avoidance (or: A Promise Kept and A Promise Broken)

by cyaneidae



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hayffie, Haymitch really deserves a happy ending, and happy endings, and some angst, but mostly lots of fluff and ridiculousness, lots of fluff, rated t just to be safe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 05:38:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3638793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyaneidae/pseuds/cyaneidae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haymitch has a lot of loathing for a certain institution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Avoidance (or: A Promise Kept and A Promise Broken)

**Author's Note:**

> 20 [run-on/barely constitute the definition] one-sentence snippets (+2 bonus, those completely in parenthesis) post-Mockingjay. Time lapse ahoy--next sentence in sequence may be hours, days, months, or years after the prior one.

1\. The day Effie's released from the hospital he makes two promises--she cries when he tells her the first (and he doesn't mention the second).  
  


2\. He heaves a sigh of relief when she hesitantly broaches the idea of a home birth (after years and years of banter she's a little alarmed at how fast he says _yes_ ).  
  


3\. During the third pregnancy Katniss' mother pulls him aside and notes that because of his wife's age, complications are more likely to arise (he tells himself he isn't being pigheaded when he asks how many district 12 women have actually delivered in a hospital--if Effie were _actually_ in danger he wouldn't hesitate to bring her to one).  
  


4\. Their twins arrive safely enough...except for a hiccup with the placentas that sends Haymitch to Mrs. Everdeen the next day, asking to be trained in every kind of medicine she knows (he may be stubborn but he isn't an idiot).  
  


5\. When Peeta falls from a ladder and ends up in the hospital with a head wound, Haymitch insists on taking care of the kids so Effie can visit (he ignores her pointed look when she mentions Peeta will likely be in the hospital overnight and visiting hours start again at 8am).  
  


6\. He learns Katniss is back from seeing Peeta when he finds her rummaging in his fridge at 10 o'clock in the morning ( _w_ _hat happened to all your whiskey??_ ).  
  


7\. They drink in silence for awhile before Katniss finally speaks ( _now I remember why you hate that place so much_ ); he replies by refilling her glass.  
  


7a. (He barely holds back a retort about how she was usually the patient--and usually heavily drugged--the (many) times she's been in a hospital...and thus incapable of truly comprehending things.)  
  


8\. Peeta is so genuinely excited about Katniss' pregnancy that Haymitch has to bite back most of his comments when he sees the boy again; he claps the boy on the back and jokes that Peeta should practice not getting any sleep _now_.  
  


9\. When Effie tells him Katniss is on bedrest for the rest of her pregnancy due to overexertion, he's halfway through a good chuckle at how expected this is--and how miserable this will make Katniss--when he realizes the true end result of this news (besides a good whack on the head from Effie) and sobers up immediately.  
  


10\. It's almost funny when Peeta exhibits four of the classic five stages of grief (bargaining, anger, depression, acceptance) as he tries to persuade Haymitch to attend the birth; it's too bad Haymitch has already resolved not to budge on this.  
  


11\. Haymitch can feel the daggers Effie is shooting at him with her eyes--ignoring her, he holds the tiny human in his arms and thinks back to when their eldest was this little.  
  


12\. Their oldest daughter breaks her arm in a weird place while playing in the woods (beforehand he had thought her utter adoration of Katniss bemusing and cute) and he knows he can't avoid it this time; for the first time in nearly a decade he finds himself both in a hospital and so drunk he is knocking instrument trays off tables left and right.   
  


13\. Effie is more angry than he's ever seen her--so much so that she can't even spit out the lecture he knows should come--and though he feels nothing but guilt, he can't muster up an explanation that she will accept.  
  


14\. Their week of tense silence is finally broken by a horrible fight ( _I thought you'd killed the facade of a drunk bastard that threw up on my dress and ignored Tributes year after year but it turns out you were him all along!_ ) and he ignores his blackening vision and a horrible pain beginning to radiate down his arm when he yells, "I just couldn't do it again sober, okay?!"  
  


15\. Someone's wailing hysterically and there's something over his face and when he tries to open his eyes and sit up he's catapulted back into nothingness again.  
  


16\. He wakes to bright fluorescent lights and worried eyes looking down at him; everything is blurry and he can't figure out what happened or where he is--he decides it's better this way and closes his eyes again.  
  


17\. After spending what turns out later to have been a day in a hospital bed, drifting between sleep and consciousness, he finally wakes up _for_ _real_ and the first thing he sees is Effie asleep on his chest, nearly falling out of the chair next to his bed.  
  


18\. He's already memorized the bags under her eyes ( _how long have I been out,_ he wonders) when she finally wakes up--and is rewarded with a quick warm smile that reminds him exactly why he said a lot of binding words quite a few years ago.  
  


18a. (It doesn't take very long for her _I was worried sick, why on earth must you scare me like that, you know what it does to my nerves!_ rant to come spiraling out, and he welcomes it all because it means that he's still alive and probably going to be okay.)  
  


19\. She looks at him expectingly and he knows it's finally time for the truth to come out, the truth that's been there all along and that he just hasn't had to vocalize until now: _a_ _fter spending the better part of two years in various hospitals, miserably waiting for one of you three to hopefully wake up again, I promised myself I wouldn't spend any more time in one--I just don't want to **die** in one, okay?  
  
_

&20\. This particular end isn't at all unexpected ( _cirrhosis is irreversible, you know, and liver cancer can very well come later_ , Effie had chided him from the very beginning--and especially after his heart attack a decade ago), but what's nice and unexpected is that he's not _there_ \--instead, he's home and surrounded by the family (both blood and Games) he never thought he'd have.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies, this has been sitting on my hard drive since early 2014 when I had the initial ideas for it--and I've slowly been adding details over the months, finishing sentences here and there. Finally had the inspiration/drive to finish it this week, hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Oh & I no longer remember what what my headcanon for the first promise was--fill in the blanks as you please.
> 
> Last note: 18a wasn't, at first, intentionally a tribute to a certain overbearing mother in a certain famous novel, then it totally was, haha.


End file.
